obama gets re-elected, then at the high end you'll see the bush tax cuts not extended for the high end. and then -- but if romney wins it, you would see them all extended. is there one that would have a better outcome in your view? >> you know, i think there's a -- there's a tension between two different things here. on the one hand, there's a sense that in the very near term with a weak overall economic performance continuing that raising levels of taxes wherever in the distribution may have some negative effects on economic growth. and then there's a harder long-term question, frankly, which is how tax rates on capital gains, on dividends which feed through a somewhat complicated channel by encouraging various kinds of saving activity and ultimately lowering the cost of capital to businesses and encouraging investment, how that translates into long-term economic growth. that is frankly a difficult chain to try to measure in any precise way, and consequently it's harder to be able to trace through the quantitative impacts on growth to follow through on channels for that. >> to follow-

. >> you're the master of the budget. so let's go through the plan. the obama camp says independent groups say if you cut those tax rates for everybody 20%, it costs $5 trillion over ten years. true? >> not in the least bit true. >> how much would it cost? >> its revenue neutral. >> i'm just talking about the cuts. we'll get to the deductions. >> the cut in tax rates is lower all americans tax rates by 20%. it's revenue neutral. >> it's not revenue new pral unless you take away the deductions. the first half, lowering the tax rates, does that cost $5 trillion? >> no. look, i won't get into a baseline art with you but that's what a lot of this is about. lowering tax rates by broadening the tax base works. and you can -- let me finish. >> you haven't given me the math. >> i don't -- it would take me too long to go through all of the math. >> i got to tell you, what did you think of that? i thought that was unbelievable. >> why? >> first of all, it was on fox which we all have views on what you think fox will do. second of all, i think he has no details. >> i don't agree with that. he

. going to lose to the reds one way or another. >>> both president obama and mitt romney will be in ohio today. the story behind that swing state. >>> welcome back. take a look and you'll see that the dow futures are slightly higher. s&p futures up by close to two and a half. this comes after the market ended on its weakest levels of the day yesterday. yesterday was the worst day for the month of september for the dow. it was the worst day in two months for the nasdaq and it was the worst day in three months for the s&p 500. all of that kind of playing out overseas as well. in europe this morning, you are going to see some red arrows. a lot of concern about what's happening as protests pick up in spain, and you see more concerns coming in greece right now about austerity measures. the german dax is down by about 1.5%. the nikkei in japan was down by 2%. >>> in "sporting news," the atlanta braves are on their way to the postseason in. the boft the ninth against the marlins last night, freddy freeman connected and takes it to straight center for a walk-off homer. exciting. the braves

with your lifestyle? >> no. proud 1%er. >>> still to come this morning on squawk, president obama, mitt romney and their respective campaign staffers hitting the airwaves. we'll have some of the highlights. and in the next hour, we have two of the world's most renowned scholars in the field of energy. why they argue that the situation in iran could be a game changer for crude prices. meantime, iranian hackers are have said to have attacked jpmorgan and citigroup. we'll talk cyber security. and ask reputation.com's michael fertik is the nation's banking system is at risk. ffrs . >>> tomorrow on "squawk box," an hour with our guest host barry diller who ran pariramount and fox. we'll talk politics with jeb bush. at optionsxpress we create easy-to-use, powerful trading tools for all. like our all-in-one trade ticket. we put strategies, chains and positions all on one screen. start trading today with optionsxpress by charles schwab. >>> last night both mitt romney and president obama were on "60 minutes" and this was a chance to see both of the candidates. it was a very interesting wa